Elton John and Rush Limbaugh, Sitting In a Tree

Elton John has never been a stranger to controversial performances. Witness his turn earlier this month in Morocco, despite the wishes of a conservative Islamist political party. Or witness his turn over a decade ago, where he tag-teamed with Eminem during a rather historic Grammy telecast, after Eminem had been accused to rampant homophobia in his lyrics.

But did Elton John finally cross the line yesterday by performing at Rush Limbaugh's fourth wedding? Forget controversy; the performance at Limbaugh's wedding has many in the gay community thinking that Sir Elton followed a yellow brick road to "Sell Out"-ville.

John played at the reception for Limbaugh and his new wife, Kate Rogers, earning a posh $1 million for tickling some ivories. Though that $1 million is a pretty good haul for a wedding band, one has to wonder if the openly gay Sir Elton has any qualms whatsoever about taking a wad of cold hard cash from a conservative commentator who has demonized the LGBT community and its allies at nearly every opportunity.

David Badash (a writer here at Change.org, and the creator and writer of The New Civil Rights Project) has a laundry list of anti-gay commentary courtesy of Limbaugh and his vast media empire. There's Limbaugh calling Rep. Barney Frank a "banking queen." There's Limbaugh's political metaphor that Democrats bend over and let gay populations and African Americans rape them. There's Limbaugh's line that LGBT students should just stay in the closet and keep quiet, instead of trumpeting their sexuality and inviting dissent. And of course, who can forget his rant about how if scientists ever discovered a gay gene that could be identified in fetuses, abortion rates would skyrocket because conservative parents wouldn't want to give birth to homo children.

Repulsive, right? So it's no wonder why queer folks around the globe are scratching their heads this morning, wondering why Sir Elton legitimized Limbaugh's rhetoric by playing at his wedding.

The ultimate irony in all of this is that Limbaugh is getting married for the fourth time, yet continues to celebrate every time a state bans gay marriage. (Witness this lovely commentary in the wake of California passing Proposition 8 in 2008.) On one hand, Limbaugh doesn't want gay people to get married, because it violates that conservative buzz phrase, "the sanctity of marriage."

Yet with his other hand, Limbaugh is marrying his fourth wife. Apparently nothing is quite so fluid as Limbaugh's definition of the word "sanctity."

Sure, Elton John is a musician, and musicians are in the business of profiting off their music. But as one of the great global faces of the LGBT community writ large, it's hard not to see John's performance at Limbaugh's wedding as a bit of a betrayal. We would, after all, be rightly alarmed if Sir Elton performed a concert for the National Organization for Marriage, or the campaign of Rep. Michele Bachmann, or the Family Research Council.

Limbaugh's politics, at least as they're articulated on his radio show, aren't so far off from these entities. He doesn't make it his life's work to trash the LGBT community, but he certainly has in the past with his comments, and he's certainly in the business of supporting political candidates and political movements that would like to further marginalize America's LGBT population.

Maybe Elton will take that $1 million paycheck and give it to some LGBT organization, which indeed would be a bit of sweet justice. Or maybe Elton John had the chance to pull Limbaugh aside at his wedding and say, "Rush, see how much you like getting married? The gays would like to have that, too!"

But unfortunately for now, the whole story feels like a bit of a gross business transaction, as if all it takes for Elton John to overlook someone's anti-gay politics is a cool, crisp $1 million. That may help Elton John's pocket book. But it certainly doesn't help his reputation among activists in this country who are working day in and day out for LGBT equality.

Photo credit: dno1967